Psycho Puppy
by JuwahBel
Summary: Clyde Trosner is found dead in his tub, face down, hands severed. The MCS detectives suspect lead singer of the band Psycho Puppy to have murdered Trosner as a way to complete the story behind Psycho Puppy's songs.
1. Chapter 1: Gory Greeting

"Right this way, Detectives." The police officer nodded to Alexandra Eames and Robert Goren and motioned as he motioned towards the open door of apartment 3 A. Policemen were scattered around the apartment speaking in low voices.

"Where's the body?" Alex Eames moved in front of her partner, who was lagging behind, taking his time looking about the room.

"In the bathroom. The super found him. Said he smelled something coming from the apartment and got curious." The policeman moved away from the detectives and down a dark hallway.

"Hey! Goren!" Alex called to her co-worker, snapping him out of a thought-trance. The large man wandered over to her, clasping his hands behind his back around his black folder.

The two followed the officer into a small bathroom.

"Geez…" Eames moved to the right of the door, giving her partner enough room to move in. Before them lay the evidence of a violent death. A naked body of a caucasian male lay face down in the tub with his arms behind his back. Two inches of blood red water swirled around the body, making the man's brown hair move, which revealed several bald spots. It all seemed like a drowning alone except for the corpse lacked hands which lay three feet from the tub.

Despite his partner's hesitation, Bobby knelt beside the severed hands. He extended his gloved hand and touched the rope that bound the hands together. "There's no sign of a struggle. No struggle, and no blood spatter…" Bobby stooped his shoulders down and took a closer look at the hands. "It's a clean cut." Letting out a slight grunt, Goren stood and faced the policemen, then twisted his body to send a look his partner's way. "I'm guess this is the owner of…." He gesticulated widely. "…this apartment."

The police officer nodded. "The super, uh….Jesse Ferrarro, identified him. Said his name is a….." The man pulled a white slip of paper out of his pocket and held it at arm's length and squinted.

Bobby plucked the paper from the man. "Forgot your glasses?" Bobby smiled as the officer nodded. "His name is..is Clyde Trosner."

"Yeah. The super said that Trosner came in late on Friday night. Said he heard a racket in the hall at approximately 2:15 AM, looked out of his front door and saw Trosner in the hall with a red-head girl. Thy were having 'fun' he said." The officer let out a grunt. "Then, they slipped into the apartment and the noise stopped."

"Hmmm…." Bobby walked to the tub and opened his leather folder. He began to write in it, but stopped. "Eames, look." The large man pointed to the body's head. "His hair." Goren squatted and pointed the tip of his pen towards a bald spot.

"What a chop job." Alex stood beside her partner now, her hand on her hip.

"Some how, I have a feeling he didn't have that haircut before two nights ago." Bobby brought his left hand to his mouth and began to slightly gnaw on his his thumbnail.

"You think the killer cut his hair? Why?"

"To conceal his identity, to make him look like someone else." Bobby stood once more and looked around the room. He walked to the trash bin, looked inside and then began to inspect various places in the room. "That's funny, no hair anywhere."

"Maybe they took the hair with them. Along with the blood on the floor and the weapon." Eames looked to the officer and then back to her partner.

"Um, is there any way we can talk to the super?"


	2. Chapter 2: Green Lantern Fan

"He's always coming in late. Partied all of the time. Usually didn't bring home girls, though. He didn't seem like much of a ladies man." Jesse Ferrarro, the superintendent of the building, was leaning in the doorway to his apartment. He looked the detectives over. They were a strange couple. Towering man with a short woman. "Two days later I smell something. I go and check it out and see Clyde face down in the tub." Mr. Ferrarro shifted his weight from his left foot to his right and then back to his left.

"Mr. Ferrarro, did you notice anything different about Clyde?" Goren had his folder open and his pen poised above a clean sheet of paper.

"What? Besides his hands laying 5 feet from the rest of him?"

"What my partner means is did you notice his hair? It looked like his killer cut it off either before or after Clyde was murdered. How long was Clyde's hair usually?" Alex pushed past her partner and into the doorway. Goren backed up and began to look around the hall.

"Just above his shoulders I guess. I didn't notice that in the bathroom, though. There wasn't any hair around that I saw…." Jesse looked flustered. He kept shifting his weight but this time faster, only leaning on each leg for about 30 seconds.

"Well, neither did we. That's the problem." Eames looked to her partner who had been squatting in front of another door, examining the carpet. "Mr. Ferrarro, do you know where Clyde worked?"

"Some comic book store over on 143rd."

Geraldo Comics

3142 143rd Street

"Yeah, I knew Clyde. I can't believe that happened to him." Gary Aldridge, one of the employees at Geraldo Comics stood behind the glass counter, nervously flicking his eyes to Detective Eames and her partner Goren. Bobby was sorting through old comics; a slight chuckle from him rang through the otherwise quiet store.

"When was the last time Clyde came into work?" Eames asked.

"Um, last Friday. Sir! Can I help you?" Gary called out to Goren.

"Don't worry. He's with me." Alex looked over to Bobby, who grabbed a comic and slowly flipped through the pages as he walked to the counter. He dropped the book on top of the glass surface. "Sorry, I've always been a Green Lantern fan." A small smile creeped onto Bobby's face.

"And I thought you couldn't get any geekier." Alex teased. In return she got a small smile from Goren has he turned and replaced the comic back on its shelf. The small woman turned her attention back to Gary. "He wasn't acting strange at all?"

"Uh, no. But, he was excited about some band playing at this club downtown. He asked me to go, but I turned the offer down." Gary wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his arm.

"Do you know which club?" Goren's voice announced his return to the counter. He had inconspicuously stepped up behind Alex and was now looking through different Mangas that lay in displays on the counter.

"No. But, I have a flyer. Clyde got all mad when the owner told him he couldn't put it on the front door." Gary moved to a small desk and began sifting through papers. "I don't know why he was trying to advertise the band. Guess he was expecting to get the praises of the lead singer. Don't know why he found her so attractive. She seemed kind of weird to me." Gary picked up a piece of colorful paper, walked back to the counter, and handed it to Bobby.

"Hmmm…." Bobby looked at the color picture of the band. "That's her? The weird one?" Bobby turned the paper around to face Gary. He pointed at the girl in the middle of the picture. She had fiery red hair and a smirk on her face. In reply, Gary nodded his head. "You've met her?"

"Only briefly. Clyde brought her in on…Thursday. That's when he tried convincing the old man to letting him put up the flyer. The girl just stood there and stared at me. She really creeped me out." Aldridge put his hands on the counter and leaned on them.

"Do you remember her name?" Eames took the paper from her partner and looked at it. Above the picture in the middle, Psycho Puppy was writing in large letters. Underneath the photo the words said that the band would be playing at 10 PM on Friday at Club Luminescence.

"Uh…No, I don't. Sorry. I was trying to not pay attention to her." Gary took his hands from the counter and crossed them across his chest.

"Look, the band's name is Psycho Puppy. They played at Club Luminescence on Friday night." Eames looked down at the paper again. Bobby made a huffing noise and then looked back to Gary.

"Thanks for your time." The detectives began walking out the door. When they cleared the store and were standing by the car, Alex walked up to Bobby and pointed to the girl in the picture again.

"D'ya think this is our redhead?"

Bobby let a small smile overtake his face as he took the flyer from her and looked at it once more.


	3. Chapter 3: Hardcore Margarita

"Her name is Evangeline Marro, 20, originally from Nyack. She's clean. " Eames threw the manilla folders down onto Bobby's desk. He picked them up and began to look through them. "No drug charges, no DUI's, not even a parking ticket. If I didn't know better, I'd think she's a model citizen." Alex plopped down into the chair at her desk. She looked at her partner whose brow was furrowed in thought.

"What band did that kid say the girl was in?" Bobby motioned towards the flyer that lay face down on Alex's desk.

"Psycho Puppy." Alex turned it over and handed it to Goren. "Why?"

Bobby dismissed her question with a slight wave of his hand. He smiled and let out a small laugh. "They're playing tonight."

"On a Tuesday?" Alex sat forward in her seat and put her head on her hands. Goren tossed the folders to the edge of his desk and placed the flyer into his portfolio.

After Goren finished re-arranging his papers in the folder, he looked back up to his partner. A smile spread across his face once more. "Feel like going out tonight?"

Club Luminescence

5342 Morale Road

Eames glanced over her shoulder at her partner who was shifting from side to side. _Great. He's dancing._ She thought to herself.

The detectives found themselves in Club Luminescence listening to Psycho Puppy, a hardcore band. The lead singer, Evangeline Marro, was prancing around the stage with her microphone, acting like she owned the world.

Goren had made Eames come, usually it was the exact opposite. She regretted coming. She could already feel the headache pounding in her head. Alex had never been one for Rock 'n Roll or hardcore for that matter, so this was just noise to her. But, Bobby seemed to be having fun. They were pretending to be fans of the band (which made Alex cringe) and after the first set, Bobby was going to start talking to Evangeline.

"Come on, Eames! Let loose! Here, let me get you a drink." Goren butt bumped Alex as he walked away from her and towards the bar. He leaned over the bar and looked at the drink list. "Hmmm…get me a margarita…..no…make that two." Goren held up two fingers and smiled at the bartender who just looked at him like he was crazy.

The set finished and Bobby felt the presence of another beside him. He turned his body and looked at Evangeline. The redhead was soaked with sweat and her hair was wild. She turned and looked at Bobby. "Hello." She smiled at him and took the water that the bartender had put on the top of the counter for her.

Next came the margaritas but Goren didn't grab them immediately. "Nice show. I'm a big fan." He smiled at her.

"Thanks." Evangeline didn't even look at him when she spoke. She was concentrating too hard on opening the water bottle.

"Here, let me do that for you." Bobby took the bottle from her and opened it with ease. He placed the bottle on the counter, splashing himself a bit. He let his hand inconspicuously slip under the counter and he wiped it on the jeans he had put on so he could blend with the crowd.

"What a gentleman." Evangeline smiled at him as she drank from the bottle. "So, what are you doing here. You seem a bit…." She stopped short.

"Old? Ha. I'm still young at heart." Bobby turned and pressed his back against the bar, putting his elbows on the bar behind him. "So, what's your name? I wasn't able to catch it…"

"Evangeline. And, I don't think I caught yours either."

"Robert." Bobby looked out towards Eames who was walking away from a guy who was calling out 'come back honey!' to her.

"Nice name, Robert. Well, I have to be going. Another set needs to be played." She turned from the bar but almost spilled her water when Eames appeared.

"Aw, looks like you two were having fun. Sorry we have to ruin it. Evangeline Marro, we need you to come downtown with us." Eames flashed her badge. Evangeline's eyes were huge as she looked to Bobby who met her gaze and pulled out his own badge.


	4. Chapter 4: Interrogating Satan Pt 1

"I haven't done anything." Evangeline now found herself sitting at a metal table in the police headquarters. Across from her sat the two detectives she had run into at Club Luminescence when her band, Psycho Puppy, was playing a 'mystery set'(as the club owner called it).

"Oh, we know." Alex Eames began flipping papers in front of Evangeline. "No DUI," a paper flew across the table towards the red-headed 20 year old. "No traffic ticket," another paper traveled across the table. "Not even a PDA". A final piece of paper was launched, and then stopped by the hand of Evangeline.

"Okay, so why am I here?"

"We need to ask you about a friend of yours…" Goren placed a photo of Clyde Trosner before the murder in front of Evangeline. "Clyde Trosner."

"Oh, him? He wasn't a friend. Just some kid that looked interesting at the Club, but turned out to be a total dweeb." Evangeline sat back and pushed the picture back towards the detectives.

"Really? Well, the superintendent of Clyde's apartment building said he saw you two 'having fun' in the hallway a few days ago." Goren leaned forward and put his hand underneath his chin when his partner said this.

"So? You're a woman. Haven't you ever wanted to just grab the guy closest to you and have a little fun with him?" Evangeline looked at Eames and smiled. Eames' stone cold expression didn't falter. "Come on, Detective Eames, not even once?"

"Not when the 'fun' ends in murder." Eames placed the morgue photo of the victim in front of Evangeline. The girl picked up the picture and studied it for several long seconds.

Evangeline put the picture down and crossed her arms over herself.

"Since you were the last person anyone saw with Mr. Trosner, we need to know what happened." Goren looked down at his open portfolio, his pen poised above a black piece of notepaper.


	5. Chapter 5: Vanilla Loverman

"We met a few weeks ago. He was one of those fans, you know, the ones that are obsessed with everything about the band. So, we hung out. He took me to lunch, helped me pass out flyers. Then, one night we…you know…really hit it off. We went back to his apartment and had "fun". An hour I left because he was too shy for me. That was the last time I saw him. And, contrary to what you detectives may be thinking, he was alive when I left. He was begging me to stay. But, I left anyway. I'm not one for children."

"Thank you, Miss Marro. The police officer will take you home." Bobby stood and opened the door for the girl. After she left, Goren turned to Eames. She raised her eyebrows at him and he shrugged playfully.

"The Green Lantern?" Eames sat down in her rolley chair at her desk. Across from her, Bobby was flipping through the pages of a comic book.

"No, not exactly." A smile spread across Bobby's face. "I went and picked this up at the comic store." Goren put his hand over his mouth and leaned on his elbow. He stopped and rubbed his brow. Bobby put the comic book on the edge of his desk, facing Alex. "Look familiar?"

Eames picked the book up and looked at the glossy drawing of a handless body floating in a bathtub.

"What is this?"

"It is 'Death by Numbers'. It's the 5th comic in the series put out by Evangeline Marro." Bobby placed a stack of several comics on Eames' desk. "It is the story behind Psycho Puppy's music."

"There's meaning behind that trash?" Bobby snorted at Alex's comment.

"Yeah, a lot of it. The body in the tub," Bobby motioned towards the book on Alex's desk. "Is Victor Lugh. He's one of the main characters. He is killed. His head is shaved clean and his hands are hacked off. The killer is never revealed in the issues that I bought, but from what I gather it is a young girl…." Bobby grabbed the book on the top of the stack and flipped through it until he found the picture he wanted. It was of a girl with bright blue hair and a smirk on her face. The girl was sitting in a tree looking down upon children playing. "Her name is Annabella Signale. She is some sort of sorceress that plans on taking over the world." Bobby handed the book to Eames.

"Wow, what a resemblance to our dear Evangeline." Alex raised her eyebrows.

"I'm not done." Goren turned to his computer and began typing. Eames got up and walked to where she could see over Bobby's shoulder at the computer monitor.

He went to a search engine and typed in "Psycho Puppy". One of the top results was Evangeline's online blog.

"Listen to this: 'for some odd reason, I find myself searching for the perfect Victor. Few have come close, but I think I found him." Bobby looked to his partner.

"This girl really is a Psycho Puppy."

Morgue

"An axe took his hands off. A very sharp axe with a lot of force behind it. I'd bet my money on the killer being male."

"What was the cause of death?" Eames looked at the redheaded examiner. Behind Eames, Bobby was prodding and poking the corpse.

"He drowned. I found bloody water in his lungs. What's strange is that there are no signs of struggle, like he was allowing himself to be killed."

"We didn't find any signs of struggle at the crime scene either." Eames looked to Bobby. He was now smelling the cadaver.

"What do you smell, boy?" She asked him, sarcasm tinted her voice.

"I thought I smelled…" Bobby had smelled his way to the corpse's neck. "Vanilla…" He raised his head up to look at Eames. "Vanilla…and brown sugar lotion around his neck."

"The lotion…I-I smelled it on Evangeline when she walked out of the door." Bobby was explaining the significance of the scent on Trosner's body.

"So that's why you were so googly eyed over her." Bobby snorted at Alex's comment.

"Hardly. I've smelled it before. Not just on Marro, but somewhere else." The two walked up to their desks and sat in their different seats across from each other. "I don't remember where though." Goren's hand came up to his face and he started rubbing his forehead.

"Well, that's a first. Let me set your mind at ease." Eames reached into her purse and pulled out a bottle of vanilla and brown sugar scented lotion and threw it in front of Goren. Her reply was a smile.

(Author Note: I was excited about this one. It kind of shows how Goren doesn't just smell bodies and boats, he actually smells women! Of course, this little characteristic of hissmelling people, not smelling the bodies was given to him by me. It isn't a fact that his character even notices the smell of his partner, but I just thought I'd throw that in for those who love BA moments!)


	6. Chapter 6: A Very Sharp Axe

ADA Carver's Office

"A search warrant for hand lotion? Detectives, I'm sorry, but that's not enough. My mother uses vanilla hand lotion, so do you want an arrest warrant for her?" Carver was perched on the corner of his desk. He raised his eyebrows at his favorite Detectives.

"Here." Goren opened his portfolio and brought out the Death By Numbers comic. He opened it to the gory scene of Victor in the tub. "How's that?" The Detective handed the Comic to the ADA.

"Okay. So? An explanation for this would be a fan going too far. That's al it is to me right now."

"That's not exactly it. The artist/author is Evangeline Marro." Eames looked at Carver as she showed him the cover of another issue in the series. On the cover it had the blue-haired female character and the name of their prime-suspect.

"Okay. I'll give you a search warrant. But that's it. You better make something out of it."

Apartment of Evangeline Marro

Number 2113

_Knock knock._

"Evangeline Marro?"

_knock knock._

"Police!"

No answer. Goren motioned towards towards the superintendent. The super stepped forward and unlocked the door. The detectives entered the apartment with 5 police officers at their heels. Various 'clears' were yelled out around the place.

The partners began to search through the apartment.

"I haven't found anything except drawings, lyrics, and comic books." Eames yelled out to Goren. She didn't know where he was. She had last seen him about an hour ago when he was milling around by the bathroom.

"Eames!" She heard her name sounding from the back of the apartment. Eames got off of her knees and headed towards her partner's voice.

She found him in Evangeline's bedroom. He was looking into the closet. Alex walked over and looked at the floor.

"An axe?" Eames smiled partially as she looked down at the axe that lay half covered up by dirty laundry.

"No, not just an axe. But, a very sharp axe."


End file.
